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OhHello - Aaron Goldman
82 Plays2 years ago
Aaron Goldman is Chief Marketing Officer at Mediaocean, the mission-critical platform for omnichannel advertising. With $200 billion in annualized ad spend running through its software, Mediaocean provides foundational solutions to connect brands, agencies, media, technology, and data. In his role, Goldman leads a wave of global initiatives across corporate marketing, communications, content, branding, and demand generation.
Goldman joined Mediaocean following its acquisition of 4C in 2020 and was named LinkedIn Marketing Partner Thought Leader of the Year. Prior to 4C, he was CMO at Kenshoo, an enterprise marketing software company, for nearly 5 years.
Previously, Goldman founded Connectual, a marketing consulting and matchmaking firm. Before that, he was VP Marketing and Strategic Partnerships at Resolution, an Omnicom agency. And in the early days, Goldman managed U.S. Midwest sales for MaxOnline, an ad network thatwas rolled up into IAC.
Goldman is the author of Everything I Know about Marketing I Learned from Google (McGraw-Hill 2010) and has a side hustle doing basketball trick shots under the moniker Jude Perfect.
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Transcript
Introduction and Greetings
00:00:16
Speaker
Brush that off, Mr. AG. Thank you for joining us on today's podcast for Oh, Hello. I am Jeremy Bloom. With me I have Aaron Goldman. Aaron, introduce yourself. Who are you? Oh, what defines you? Oh, hello. I assume we have to start everyone that way, right? You have to you have to like give me your best Oh, hello. Oh, hello.
00:00:43
Speaker
Hello, maybe British accent. Oh, hello. Hello, governor. I'll take it. I will take
Personal Identity and Roles
00:00:49
Speaker
it. You are a man that's very well traveled. Sorry, I got stuck on the Oh, hello. What was the first question? Who are you? What defines you? Who am I? What defines me? Wow. Well, I'm Aaron. I am a husband, a dad, a marketer, team leader, rapper, trick shotter.
00:01:12
Speaker
I'll stop short of baller 20-inch rims on the Impala. But you know, I could go there if we wanted to. And then, yeah, I guess, gosh, I mean, I guess what defines me is probably the people around me. My wife, family, I got three kids, a marketing team at Media Ocean. I was going to say my Twitter followers, but no, they definitely don't define me. And yeah, you know, it's
00:01:38
Speaker
It's all in the eye of the beholder, right? I'd say what defines me is their perception more than anything I try and actively put out in the world. Well said, as a chief marketing officer, someone who's been in our ecosystem for so long is a dear friend of mine.
Career Journey and Experiences
00:01:54
Speaker
How would you characterize your skill set that you're going to be sharing with the Oh, hello community? Well,
00:02:00
Speaker
Let's see, I've been in media and marketing for about 25 years at this point. So a lot to draw on. I got my first job in advertising, working for the school paper. Shout out to the Daily Illini, which we both read back in the day. And yeah, so coming out of school, I got in at L90, which was an early online ad network. So kind of got a feel for
00:02:22
Speaker
this newfangled internet thing in digital media. I did about five years there. We merged with DoubleClick Media, became Max Online, got bought by Excite and Ask Jeeves, so four or five different companies in the five years. I certainly got a taste of M&A at an early age, although I was too young to really make much money off of it, but certainly good lessons learned. You learned a lot.
00:02:48
Speaker
Yeah, and then let's see, at that point, yeah, went all in on search, not at SG's, but Resolution Media, which was an agency that we started and eventually sold to Omnicom, so got a good taste for agency life, hold coves, and the role that they play in the ecosystem.
Publishing and Professional Growth
00:03:05
Speaker
From there, I spent time consulting, writing, I published a book, everything I know about marketing, I learned from Google,
00:03:13
Speaker
not so humbly displayed on the bookshelf there right behind me. I've got a signed copy. Thank you, sir. Yeah. And then it's still available, by the way, you can find it on Amazon. And then let's see. So yeah, then I joined Ken Chu as CMO. They're called Sky Now, one of the leading ad tech companies for walled gardens. And from there, I went to 4C as the CMO. So kind of early in the social space, social ad tech.
00:03:39
Speaker
And then we got bought by MediaOcean in 2020. And of course, MediaOcean is the OG of ad tech, going back to the DDS, the Donovan Data Systems days. And it's always amazing that I talk to people here have been with the company 30, 40, 50 years. So really keeps me young and feels like there's always more to learn, which I love.
00:04:00
Speaker
I love that and you've got such an amazing background so many people can learn from and that I personally admire. With that
Mentorship Significance
00:04:06
Speaker
said, what excites you about just being a mentor and just being someone that so many people look up to within our ecosystem?
00:04:13
Speaker
Well, I mean, mentorship is super important. And by the way, not just for the mentees, but also for the mentors. At Media Ocean, we have a formal mentorship program. And through that, I've been paired with some incredible people, especially with remote working, the opportunity to build connections. It's much harder to do without being physically present around people that you can sort of run into at the water cooler, which is why I put one in my bedroom here to remind me the importance of those
00:04:42
Speaker
little moments, the small talk that really builds relationships. So, you know, what you're doing with Oh, hello is it's huge because many people don't work at companies that have mentorship programs. Some people don't work at companies at all. They're either trying to break into the industry or they're in between companies. And so it's really hard to find people and find opportunities to talk about this kind of stuff. And so, you know, the, the idea that, that opening that up, making it more accessible,
00:05:09
Speaker
Again, both for the mentee and the mentor is it's super important and super exciting. Love that answer. But would you tell your
Advice to Younger Self
00:05:17
Speaker
25 year old self looking back? All right, let's see 25 years ago was probably Yeah, you're not you're not what would you tell your 25 year old self? Yeah, okay. Well, I guess I was I was probably still at L 90 max online back then which by the way is where I met Bill wise who's now CEO at media ocean so I guess I'd probably tell myself
00:05:39
Speaker
Stay close to that guy. Follow his co-tales. But, you know, I guess to that point, I would kind of reassure myself that it's not only okay to work with people that you're friends with, but actually it's recommended. You know, I came out of school, took a job with one of my closest friends from college, and then we started a resolution with another college fraternity brother. Why don't you give those guys a couple of shouts? Yeah, sure. So, Matt Spiegel, Lance Neuhauser,
00:06:09
Speaker
And at the time, I probably questioned and other people questioned, hey, is that a smart move to get into business with your buddies? But looking back now, I can certainly say that it all worked out. So I would just tell myself, don't listen to the naysayers. You can mix business and pleasure and still grow a nice career and keep those friendships intact. Well said. Really important advice.
00:06:34
Speaker
With that said,
Influential Mentors
00:06:35
Speaker
though, who are three of your top mentors, whether they're live, not with us anymore? I guess I'd probably point to some of the folks I just mentioned, you know, Bill Wise, who's our CEO at Media Ocean, Matt Spiegel, Lance Neuhauser, Keith Kaplan, another one who was very, who has been very influential as a mentor to me throughout my career. He was president at L90 Max Online back in the day.
00:07:02
Speaker
I'm just, you know, one of the most generous people generous with his time is energy everything just sort of a good pure heart and I guess that's probably a common thread with all those folks. You know, I think the, you know, importance of trust and loyalty are certainly some things that
00:07:18
Speaker
that I attribute to those folks and that they imparted on me over the years and certainly wouldn't be where I am now without them. Trust is so important. It's such an important aspect of everything that we do and just from being an expert within the ecosystem, from being a mentor, from working with so many people. If you can't trust one another, that's what we're here for. You only live once, so I love that you just said that.
00:07:40
Speaker
appreciate you struggling back and hitting on those mentors. And the final question for you, Mr. Goldman,
Supporting Susan G. Komen
00:07:46
Speaker
as a Hello, you're going to be able to donate to and choose to donate to over 40 different charities that are baked into our platform into the Oh, hello platform off the bat within the states. And we're gonna have about 500 different charities across the globe. What's near and dear to your heart? Which charity?
00:08:07
Speaker
Yeah, and it's awesome that you're doing that. For me, it's Susan G. Komen. I've had a few women in my life affected by breast cancer. My grandma Nikki died about 30 years ago. And she was an amazing person, a teacher, a runner. Her motto was keep it up, don't stop. And so we use that as motivation with our kids. And I also think it's kind of apropos when it comes to finding a cure.
00:08:36
Speaker
I gotta believe with all of our modern tech and AI that a cure has to be within reach. I mean, if we can have a chat GPT, writing our research papers and coding for us, surely we can find a way to prevent or treat cancer. So that's what I'll be raising money for.
00:08:53
Speaker
Awesome, Aaron, awesome. Well, really appreciate you joining us today. Really appreciate the friendship, the guidance, the support. With that said, I know that you have a hard stop. Thank you so much. We appreciate you being part of the Oh Hello community and we will talk soon. Thanks, AG. Oh, goodbye. Oh, goodbye.